Greek shipping tycoons and their tanker companies operating in Western jurisdictions ship large volumes of Russian oil and make big bucks on such risky deals. The months following the embargo and the price cap that corrected it have shown that only a few Western companies avoid shipping a banned product.
Analysis showed that tankers owned by Greece, the EU member with the world’s largest merchant fleet, still have Western insurance. And they work with oil from the Russian Federation. Nothing has changed in recent months.
Western shippers and insurers must have a so-called certificate that they are transporting Russian oil purchased below the price cap in order to comply with the sanctions. But this does not mean that the ceiling price is always respected, otherwise the carrier did not make such astronomical profits, experts believe. This is the confusing system of assessing the initial value of the cargo, based on the voluntary declaration of the parties to the transaction. The horizon of manipulation is therefore vast.
Since the price cap came into effect on December 5, Greek-owned tankers have been on par with the ghost fleet in terms of the number of shipments of Russian commodities, if you count in terms of calls to major terminals. of Russian oil exports. . This is evidenced by data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
In fact, nothing has changed since the restrictions were introduced. In the absence of many other Western carriers that pulled out for ethical reasons, the Greeks charge traders at least 30% more to charter their tankers to transport Russian oil, compared to similar rates for crude oil not allowed. This is written by the Wall Street Journal, referring to ship brokers.
Of course, in Ukraine they are unhappy with the behavior of the Greek shipping companies, but the profits and the deductions from the budget of Greece suffering from the crisis are so great that this country and its people will never be led by the populist cries of the Ukrainians and their lobbyists in Europe. As a result, it turns out that the West remains the main transporter and insurer of Russian oil.
Read the Latest Government Politics News on The Eastern Herald.
